TH6  DRUMS 
OFTH6  FOR6 
AND  AFT-* 


RUDYARD 
KIPLING 


Oo 


OF  CALIF.  LIBRARY,  LOS  ANGELES 


NEELY'S 
Booklet   Library. 

The  following  Titles  now  ready  or  in  Preparation; 


1.  The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft.     Rudyard  Kipling. 

2.  The    Sins    of   a  Widow.      Confessed  by   Amelie 

L'Oiseau. 

8.  Twos  and  Threes.     Anna  Olcott  Commeline. 

4.  Santiago  de  Cuba  Before  the  War.    Caroline  L. 

Wallace. 

5.  The  Barbarian.     Bedloe  Mendum. 

6.  Wrecks  and  Wreckers.     S.  P.  Jermain. 

7.  Master  and  Man.    Count  Leon  Tolstoi. 

8.  The    Greatest    Thing    in    the    World.       Henry 

Drutnmond. 

9.  Black  Jim.     Rudyard  Kipling. 

10.  An  Idyll  of  London.     Beatrice  Harraden. 

11.  The  House  of  a  Traitor.     Prosper  Merimee. 

12.  My  Sister  Kate.     By  the  Author  of  Dora  Thome. 

13.  The  Fatal  Marriage.     Charlotte  M.  Braeme. 

14.  The  Nest  of  Nobles.     Turgeneiff. 

15.  A  Lodging  in  the  Night.     Robert  Louis  Stevensom. 

16.  A  Case  of  Identity.    A.  Conan  Doyle. 

17.  Nurse  Eva.     The  Duchess. 

18.  A  Scandal  in  Bohemia.     A.  Conan  Doyle. 

19.  The  Man  from  Archangel.     A.  Conan  Doyle. 

20.  The  Captain  of  the  Pole  Star.     A.  Conan  Doyle. 

21.  John  Barrington  Bowles.     A.  Conan  Doyle. 

22.  Love's  Ransom  Shot     Wilkie  Collins. 

23.  Love  Finds  the  Way.     Walter  Besant  &  Jas.  Rice. 

24.  The  Little  Russian  Servant.     Henri  Greville. 

25.  The  New  Adam  and  Eve.    Nathaniel  Hawthorns. 

26.  The  Spring  of  a  Lion.    H.  Rider  Haggard. 


Tor  salt  everywhere,  or  sent  post-paid  on  receipt  of  prio*. 

F.  TENNYSON  NEELY,  Publisher, 
»•  Queen  St.,  London.    114  Fifth  Are.,  If.  Y. 


The  Drums  of  the 
Fore  and  Aft. 


i^eixi anl    Ki  fjTi  n  a 

O         I     <5> 


The  Drums  of  the 
Fore  and  Aft* 


BY 
RUDYARD  KIPLING. 


Nedy'a  Booklet  Library.    No.  1,  January  2, 1899.    Issued  weekly,  $5.00  a  year. 
Entered  as  secdnd-claaa  matter  at  New  York  Post  Office. 


F.  TENNYSON  NEELY, 
New  York  and  London. 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft. 


"And  a  little  child  shall  lead  them? 

IN  the  Army  List  they  still  stand  as 
"  The  Fore  and  Fit  Princess  Hohenzol- 
lern  -  Sigmaringen  -  Auspach's  Merther- 
Tydfilshire  Own  Royal  Loyal  Light  In- 
fantry, Regimental  District  329  A,"  but 
the  army  through  all  its  barracks  and 
canteens  knows  them  now  as  the  "  Fore 
and  Aft."  They  may  in  time  do  some- 
thing that  shall  make  their  new  title 
honorable,  but  at  present  they  are  bit- 
terly ashamed,  and  the  man  who  calls 
them  "Fore  and  Aft"  does  so  at  the 
risk  of  the  head  which  is  on  his  shoul- 
ders. 


21306B7 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft* 

Two  words  breathed  into  the  stables 
of  a  certain  cavalry  regiment  will  bring 
the  men  out  into  the  streets  with  belts 
and  mops  and  bad  language;  but  a 
whisper  of  "Fore  and  Aft"  will  bring 
out  this  regiment  with  rifles. 

Their  one  excuse  is  that  they  came 
again  and  did  their  best  to  finish  the 
job  in  style.  But  for  a  time  all  their 
world  knows  that  they  were  openly 
beaten,  whipped,  dumb-cowed,  shaking 
and  afraid.  The  men  know  it;  their 
officers  know  it;  the  Horse  Guards  know 
it;  and  when  the  next  war  comes  the 
enemy  will  know  it  also.  There  are  two 
or  three  regiments  of  the  line  that  have 
a  black  mark  against  their  names  which 
they  will  then  wipe  out,  and  it  will  be 
excessively  inconvenient  for  the  troops 
upon  whom  they  do  their  wiping. 
6 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft. 

The  courage  of  the  British  soldier  is 
officially  supposed  to  be  above  proof, 
and,  as  a  general  rule,  it  is  so.  The  ex- 
ceptions are  decently  shoveled  out  of 
sight,  only  to  be  referred  to  in  the 
freshest  of  unguarded  talk  that  occa- 
sionally swamps  a  mess-table  at  mid- 
night. Then  one  hears  strange  and 
horrible  stories  of  men  not  following 
their  officers,  of  orders  being  given  by 
those  who  had  no  right  to  give  them, 
and  of  disgrace  that,  but  for  the  stand- 
ing luck  of  the  British  Army,  might 
have  ended  in  brilliant  disaster.  These 
are  unpleasant  stories  to  listen  to,  and 
the  messes  tell  them  under  their  breath, 
sitting  by  the  big  wood  fires,  and  the 
young  officer  bows  his  head  and  thinks 
to  himself,  please  God,  his  men  shall 
never  behave  unhandily. 
7 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft. 

The  British  soldier  is  not  altogether 
to  be  blamed  for  occasional  lapses;  but 
this  verdict  he  should  not  know.  A 
moderately  intelligent  general  will  waste 
six  months  in  mastering  the  craft  of  the 
particular  war  that  he  may  be  waging; 
a  colonel  may  utterly  misunderstand 
the  capacity  of  his  regiment  for  three 
months  after  it  has  taken  the  field;  and 
even  a  company  commander  may  err 
and  be  deceived  as  to  the  temper  and 
temperament  of  his  own  handful;  where- 
fore the  soldier,  and  the  soldier  of  to-day 
more  particularly,  should  not  be  blamed 
for  falling  back.  He  should  be  shot  or 
hanged  afterwards — pour  encourager  les 
autres — but  he  should  not  be  vilified  in 
newspapers,  for  that  is  want  of  tact  and 
waste  of  space. 

He  has,  let  us  say,  been  in  the  service 
8 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft. 

of  the  empress  for,  perhaps,  four  years. 
He  will  leave  in  another  two  years.  He 
has  no  inherited  morals,  and  four  years 
are  not  sufficient  to  drive  toughness  into 
his  fibre,  or  to  teach  him  how  holy  a 
thing  is  his  regiment.  He  wants  to 
drink,  he  wants  to  enjoy  himself — in 
India  he  wants  to  save  money — and  he 
does  not  in  the  least  like  getting  hurt. 
He  has  received  just  sufficient  education 
to  make  him  understand  half  the  pur- 
port of  the  orders  he  receives,  and  to 
speculate  on  the  nature  of  clean,  incised, 
and  shattering  wounds.  Thus,  if  he  is 
told  to  deploy  under  fire  preparatory  to 
an  attack,  he  knows  that  he  runs  a  very 
great  risk  of  being  killed  while  he  is  de- 
ploying, and  suspects  that  he  is  being 
thrown  away  to  gain  ten  minutes'  time, 
He  may  either  deploy  with  desperate 


T'ne  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft. 

swiftness,  or  he  may  shuffle,  or  bunch, 
or  break,  according  to  the  discipline 
under  which  he  has  lain  for  four  years. 
Armed  with  imperfect  knowledge, 
cursed  with  the  rudiments  of  an  imag- 
ination, hampered  by  the  intense  selfish- 
ness of  the  lower  classes,  and  unsup- 
ported by  any  regimental  associations, 
this  young  man  is  suddenly  introduced 
to  an  enemy  who  in  eastern  lands  is 
always  ugly,  generally  tall  and  hairy, 
and  frequently  noisy.  If  he  looks  to 
the  right  and  the  left  and  sees  old  sol- 
diers— men  of  twelve  years'  service,  who, 
he  knows,  know  what  they  are  about — 
taking  a  charge,  rush,  or  demonstration 
without  embarrassment,  he  is  consoled, 
and  applies  his  shoulder  to  the  butt  of 
his  rifle  with  a  stout  heart.  His  peace  is 
the  greater  if  he  hears  a  senior,  who  has 
10 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft« 

taught  him  his  soldiering  and  broken  his 
head  on  occasion,  whispering:  "They'll 
shout  and  carry  on  like  this  for  five 
minutes,  then  they'll  rush  in,  and  then 
we've  got  'em  by  the  short  hairs  !" 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  if  he  sees  only 
men  of  his  own  term  of  service,  turn- 
ing white  and  playing  with  their  triggers 
and  saying  :  "What  the  hell's  up  now  ?" 
while  the  company  commanders  are 
sweating  into  their  sword-hilts  and 
shouting:  "Front-rank,  fix  bayonets! 
Steady,  there — steady !  Sight  for  three 
hundred — no,  for  five !  Lie  down,  all ! 
Steady !  Front-rank,  kneel !"  and  so 
forth,  he  becomes  unhappy;  and  grows 
acutely  miserable  when  he  hears  a  com- 
rade turn  over  with  a  rattle  of  fire-irons 
falling  into  the  fender,  and  the  grunt  of 
a  pole-axed  ox.  If  he  can  be  moved 
11 


Tiie  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft. 

about  a  little  and  allowed  to  watch  the 
effect  of  his  own  fire  on  the  enemy,  he 
feels  merrier,  and  may  be  then  worked 
up  to  the  blind  passion  of  fighting-,  which 
is,  contrary  to  general  belief,  controlled 
by  a  chilly  devil  and  shakes  men  like 
ague.  If  he  is  not  moved  about,  and 
begins  to  feel  cold  at  the  pit  of  the 
stomach,  and  in  that  crisis  is  badly 
mauled  and  hears  orders  that  were  never 
given,  he  will  break,  and  he  will  break 
badly;  and  of  all  things  under  the  sight 
of  the  sun  there  is  nothing  more  terrible 
than  a  broken  British  regiment.  When 
the  worst  comes  to  the  worst,  and  the 
panic  is  really  epidemic,  the  men  must 
be  e'en  let  go,  and  the  company  com- 
manders had  better  escape  to  the  enemy 
and  stay  there  for  safety's  sake.  If  they 
can  be  made  to  come  again,  they  are 
12 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft, 

not  pleasant  men  to  meet,  because  they 
will  not  break  twice. 

About  thirty  years  from  this  date, 
when  we  have  succeeded  in  half-educa- 
ting everything  that  wears  trousers,  our 
army  will  be  a  beautifully  unreliable 
machine.  It  will  know  too  much,  and 
it  will  do  too  little.  Later  still,  when 
all  men  are  at  the  mental  level  of 
the  officer  of  to-day  it  will  sweep 
the  earth.  Speaking  roughly,  you  must 
employ  either  blackguards  or  gentle- 
men, or,  best  of  all,  blackguards  com- 
manded by  gentlemen,  to  do  butch- 
er's work  with  efficiency  and  dispatch. 
The  ideal  soldier  should,  of  course,  think 
for  himself — the  pocket-book  says  so. 
Unfortunately,  to  attain  this  virtue,  he 
has  to  pass  through  the  phase  of  think- 
ing of  himself,  and  that  is  misdirected 
13 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft. 

genius.  A  blackguard  may  be  slow  to 
think  for  himself,  but  he  is  genuinely 
anxious  to  kill,  and  a  little  punishment 
teaches  him  how  to  guard  his  own  skin 
and  perforate  another's.  A  powerfully 
prayerful  Highland  regiment,  officered 
by  rank  Presbyterians,  is,  perhaps,  one 
degree  more  terrible  in  action  than  a 
hard  bitten  thousand  of  irresponsible 
Irish  ruffians,  led  by  most  improper 
young  unbelievers.  But  these  things 
prove  the  rule — which  is,  that  the  mid- 
way men  are  not  to  be  trusted  alone. 
They  have  ideas  about  the  value  of  life 
and  an  up-bringing  that  has  not  taught 
them  to  go  on  and  take  the  chances. 
They  are  carefully  unprovided  with  a 
backing  of  comrades  who  have  been 
shot  over,  and  until  that  backing  is 
reintroduced,  as  a  great  many  regi- 
14 


The  Drums  of  the  Fote  and  Aft. 

mental  commanders  intend  it  shall  be, 
they  are  more  liable  to  disgrace  them- 
selves than  the  size  of  the  empire  or  the 
dignity  of  the  army  allows.  Their 
officers  are  as  good  as  good  can  be, 
because  their  training  begins  early,  and 
God  has  arranged  that  a  clean-run 
youth  of  the  British  middle  classes  shall, 
in  the  matter  of  backbone,  brains,  and 
bowels,  surpass  all  other  youths.  For 
this  reason,  a  child  of  eighteen  will 
stand  up,  doing  nothing,  with  a  tin 
sword  in  his  hand  and  joy  in  his  heart 
until  he  is  dropped.  If  he  dies,  he  dies 
like  a  gentleman.  If  he  lives,  he  writes 
home  that  he  has  been  "potted," 
"sniped,"  "chipped,"  or  "cut  over,"  and 
sits  down  to  besiege  the  government  for 
a  wound  gratuity  until  the  next  little 
war  breaks  out,  when  he  perjures  him- 
15 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft. 

self  before  a  medical  board,  blarneys 
his  colonel,  burns  incense  round  his 
adjutant,  and  is  allowed  to  go  to  the 
front  once  more. 

Which  homily  brings  me  directly  to  a 
brace  of  the  most  finished  little  fiends 
that  ever  banged  drum  or  tooted  fife  in 
the  band  of  a  British  regiment.  They 
ended  their  sinful  career  by  open  and 
flagrant  mutiny  and  were  shot  for  it. 
Their  names  were  Jakin  and  Lew — 
Piggy  Lew — and  they  were  bold,  bad 
drummer-boys,  frequently  birched  by 
the  drum-major  of  the  Fore  and  Aft. 

Jakin  was  a  stunted  child  of  fourteen, 
and  Lew  was  about  the  same  age. 
When  not  looked  after,  they  smoked 
and  drank.  They  swore  habitually  after 
the  manner  of  the  barrack  room,  which 
is  cold-swearing  and  comes  from  be- 

16 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft, 

tween  clinched  teeth;  and  they  fought 
religiously  once  a  week.  Jakin  had 
sprung  from  some  London  gutter  and 
may  or  may  not  have  passed  through 
Dr.  Barnardo's  hands  ere  he  arrived  at 
the  dignity  of  drummer-boy.  Lew 
could  remember  nothing  except  the 
regiment  and  the  delight  of  listening  to 
the  band  from  his  earliest  years.  He 
hid  somewhere  in  his  grimy  little  soul  a 
genuine  love  for  music,  and  was  most 
mistakenly  furnished  with  the  head  of  a 
cherub;  insomuch  that  beautiful  ladies 
who  watched  the  regiment  in  church 
were  wont  to  speak  of  him  as  a  "  dar- 
ling." They  never  heard  his  vitriolic 
comments  on  their  manners  and  morals, 
as  he  walked  back  to  barracks  with  the 
band  and  matured  fresh  causes  of 
offense  against  Jakin. 
17 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft. 

The  other  drummer-boys  hated  both 
lads  on  account  of  their  illogical  con- 
duct. Jakin  might  be  pounding  Lew, 
or  Lew  might  be  rubbing  Jakin's  head 
in  the  dirt;  but  any  attempt  at  agres- 
sion  on  the  part  of  an  outsider  was  met 
by  the  combined  forces  of  Lew  and 
Jakin,  and  the  consequences  were  pain- 
ful. The  boys  were  the  Ishmaels  of  the 
corps,  but  wealthy  Ishmaels,  for  they 
sold  battles  in  alternate  weeks  for  the 
sport  of  the  barracks  when  they  were 
not  pitted  against  other  boys;  and  thus 
amassed  money. 

On  this  particular  day  there  was  dis- 
sension in  the  camp.  They  had  just 
been  convicted  afresh  of  smoking, 
which  is  bad  for  little  boys  who  use 
plug  tobacco,  and  Lew's  contention  was 
that  Jakin  had  "stunk  so  'orrid  bad 
18 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft. 

from  keepin'  the  pipe  in  his  pocket," 
that  he  and  he  alone  was  responsible  for 
the  birching  they  were  both  tingling 
under. 

"  I  tell  you  I  'id  the  pipe  back  o' 
barricks, '  said  Jakin  pacifically. 

"You're  a  bloomin'  liar,"  said  Lew 
without  heat. 

"You're  a  bloomin'  little  barstard," 
said  Jakin,  strong  in  the  knowledge  that 
his  own  ancestry  was  unknown. 

Now  there  is  one  word  in  the  extended 
vocabulary  of  barrack-room  abuse  that 
cannot  pass  without  comment.  You 
call  a  man  a  thief  and  risk  nothing. 
You  may  even  call  him  a  coward  with- 
out finding  more  than  a  boot  whiz  past 
your  ear,  but  you  must  not  call  a  man  a 
bastard  unless  you  are  preparec1  to  prove 
it  on  his  front  teeth. 
19 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft, 

"  You  might  ha'  kep'  that  till  I  wasn't 
so  sore,"  said  Lew,  sorrowfully,  dodging 
round  Jakin's  guard. 

"  I'll  make  you  sorer,"  said  Jakin,  ge- 
nially, and  got  home  on  Lew's  alabaster 
forehead.  All  would  have  gone  well 
and  this  story,  as  the  books  say,  would 
never  have  been  written,  had  not  his 
evil  fate  prompted  the  Bazaar-Sergeant's 
son,  a  long,  employless  man  of  twenty- 
five,  to  put  in  appearance  after  the  first 
round.  He  was  eternally  in  need  of 
money,  and  knew  that  the  boys  had 
silver. 

"  Fighting  again,"  said  he.  "  I'll  re- 
port you  to  my  father,  and  he'll  report 
you  to  the  Color-Sergeant." 

"What's  that  to  you?"  said  Jakin, 
with  an  unpleasant  dilation  of  the  nos- 
trils. 

20 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft. 

"  Oh!  nothing  to  me.  You'll  get  into 
trouble,  and  you've  been  up  too  often  to 
afford  that." 

"  What  the  hell  do  you  know  about 
what  we've  done?"  asked  Lew,  the 
Seraph.  "  You  aren't  in  the  army,  you 
lousy,  cadging  civilian!" 

He  closed  in  on  the  man's  left  flank. 

"  Jes'  'cause  you  find  two  gentlemen 
settlin'  their  diff'rences  with  their  fistes, 
you  stick  in  your  ugly  nose  where  you 
aren't  wanted.  Run  'ome  to  your  'arf- 
cast  slut  of  a  ma — or  we'll  give  you 
what-for,"  said  Jakin. 

The  man  attempted  reprisals  by 
knocking  the  boys'  heads  together.  The 
scheme  would  have  succeeded  had  not 
Jakin  punched  him  vehemently  in  the 
stomach,  or  had  Lew  refrained  from 
kicking  his  shins.  They  fought  to- 
21 


Tte  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft. 

gether,  bleeding  and  breathless,  for  half 
an  hour,  and,  after  heavy  punishment, 
triumphantly  pulled  down  their  oppo- 
nent as  terriers  pull  down  a  jackal. 

"  Now,"  gasped  Jakin,  "  I'll  give  you 
what-for."  He  proceeded  to  pound  the 
man's  features  while  Lew  stamped  on 
the  outlying  portions  of  his  anatomy. 
Chivalry  is  not  a  strong  point  in  the 
composition  of  the  average  drummer- 
boy.  He  fights,  as  do  his  betters,  to 
make  his  mark. 

Ghastly  was  the  ruin  that  escaped, 
and  awful  was  the  wrath  of  the  Bazaar- 
Sergeant.  Awful,  too,  was  the  scene  in 
the  orderly-room  where  the  two  repro- 
bates appeared  to  answer  the  charge  of 
half-murdering  a  "civilian."  The  Ba- 
zaar-Sergeant thirsted  for  a  criminal 
action,  and  his  son  lied.  The  boys 
22 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft. 

stood  to  attention  while  the  black  clouds 
of  evidence  accumulated. 

"  You  little  devils  are  more  trouble 
than  the  rest  of  the  regiment  put  to- 
gether," said  the  colonel,  angrily.  "  One 
might  as  well  admonish  thistledown, 
and  I  can't  well  put  you  in  cells  or  under 
stoppages.  You  must  be  flogged  again." 

"  Beg  y'  pardon,  sir.  Can't  we  say 
nothin'  in  our  own  defense,  sir  ?"  shrilled 
Jakin. 

"  Hey !  What  ?  Are  you  going  to 
argue  with  me  ?"  said  the  colonel. 

"No,  sir,"  said  Lew.  "  But  if  a  man 
come  to  you,  sir,  and  said  he  was  going 
to  report  you,  sir,  for  'aving  a  bit  of  a 
turn-up  with  a  friend,  sir,  an'  wanted  to 
get  money  out  o'  you,  sir— 

The  orderly-room  exploded  in  a  roar 
of  laughter.     "Well ?"  said  the  colonel. 
23 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft. 

"  That  was  what  that  measly  jarnwar 
there  did,  sir,  and  'e'd  a'  done  it,  sir,  if 
we  'adn't  prevented  'im.  We  didn't  'it 
'im  much,  sir.  'E  'adn't  no  manner  o' 
right  to  interfere  with  us,  sir.  I  don't 
mind  bein'  flogged  by  the  Drum-Major, 
sir,  nor  yet  reported  by  any  corp'ral,  but 
I'm — but  I  don't  think  it's  fair,  sir,  for  a 
civilian  to  come  an'  talk  over  a  man  in 
the  army." 

A  second  shout  of  laughter  shook  the 
orderly-room,  but  the  colonel  was  grave. 

"  What  sort  of  characters  have  these 
boys  ?"  he  asked  of  the  regimental  ser- 
geant-major. 

"  Accordin'  to  the  Bandmaster,  sir," 
returned  that  revered  official — the  only 
soul  in  the  regiment  whom  the  boys 
feared — "they  do  everything  but  lie, 
sir." 

24 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft. 

"  Is  it  like  we'd  go  for  that  man  for 
fun,  sir  ?"  said  Lew,  pointing  to  the 
plaintiff. 

"Oh,  admonished — admonished !"  said 
the  colonel,  testily,  and,  when  the  boys 
had  gone,  he  read  the  Bazaar-Sergeant's 
son  a  lecture  on  the  sin  of  unprofitable 
meddling,  and  gave  orders  that  the 
Bandmaster  should  keep  the  drums  in 
better  discipline. 

"  If  either  of  you  come  to  practice 
again  with  so  much  as  a  scratch  on  your 
two  ugly  little  faces,"  thundered  the 
Bandmaster,  "  I'll  tell  the  Drum-Major 
to  take  the  skin  off  your  backs.  Under- 
stand that,  you  young  devils." 

Then  he  repented  of  his  speech  for 
just  the  length  of  time  that  Lew,  look- 
ing like  a  seraph  in  red  worsted  embel- 
ishments,  took  the  place  of  one  of  the 
25 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft* 

trumpets  —  in  hospital — and  rendered 
the  echo  of  a  battle-piece.  Lew  cer- 
tainly was  a  musician,  and  had  often,  in 
his  more  exalted  moments,  expressed  a 
yearning  to  master  every  instrument  of 
the  band. 

"There's  nothing-  to  prevent  your  be- 
coming a  Bandmaster,  Lew,"  said  the 
Bandmaster,  who  had  composed  waltzes 
of  his  own,  and  worked  day  and  night 
in  the  interests  of  the  band  with  whole- 
souled  devotion. 

"What  did  he  say  ?"  demanded  Jakin, 
after  practice. 

"  Said  I  might  be  a  bloomin'  Band- 
master, an'  be  asked  in  to  'ave  a  glass  o' 
sherry-wine  on  mess-nights." 

"  Ho  !  Said  you  might  be  a  bloomin' 
non-combatant,  did  'e?  That's  just  about 
wot  'e  would  say.  When  I've  put  in 
26 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft. 

my  boy's  service — it's  a  bloomin'  shame 
that  doesn't  count  for  pension — I'll  take 
on  a  privit.  Then,  I'll  be  a  lance  in  a 
year — knowin'  what  I  know  about  the 
ins  an'  outs  o'  things.  In  three  years, 
I'll  be  a  bloomin'  sergeant.  I  won't 
marry  then,  not  I !  I'll  'old  on,  and 
learn  the  orfcers'  ways,  an'  apply  for 
exchange  into  a  reg'ment  that  doesn't 
know  all  about  me.  Then,  I'll  be  a 
bloomin'  orf'cer.  Then,  I'll  ask  you  to 
'ave  a  glass  o'  sherry-wine,  Mister  Lew, 
an'  you'll  bloomin'  well  'ave  to  stay  in 
the  hanty-room  while  the  mess-sergeant 
brings  it  to  your  dirty  'ands." 

"S'pose  /'m  going  to  be  a  Band- 
master ?  Not  I,  quite.  I'll  be  a  orf'cer, 
too.  There's  nothin'  like  taking  to  a 
thing  an'  stickin'  to  it,  the  schoolmaster 
says.  The  reg'ment  don't  go  'ome  for 
27 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft. 

another  seven  years.  I'll  be  a  lance 
then  or  near  to." 

Thus  the  boys  discussed  their  futures, 
and  conducted  themselves  with  exem- 
plary piety  for  a  week.  That  is  to  say, 
Lew  started  a  flirtation  with  the  Color- 
Sergeant's  daughter,  aged  thirteen — 
"not,"  as  he  explained  to  Jakin,  "with 
any  intention  o'  matrimony,  but  by  way 
o'  keepin'  my  'and  in."  And  the  black- 
haired  Cris  Delighan  enjoyed  that  flirta- 
tion more  than  previous  ones,  and  the 
other  drummer-boys  raged  furiously 
together,  and  Jakin  preached  sermons 
on  the  dangers  of  "  bein'  tangled  along 
o'  petticoats." 

But  neither  love  nor  virtue  would  have 

held  Lew  long  in  the  paths  of  propriety, 

had  not  the   rumor  gone  abroad  that 

the  regiment  was  to  be  sent  on  active 

28 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft. 

service,  to  take  part  in  a  war  which,  for 
the  sake  of  brevity,  we  will  call  "  The 
War  of  the  Lost  Tribes." 

The  barracks  had  the  rumor  almost 
before  the  mess-room,  and  of  all  the 
nine  hundred  men  in  barracks  not  ten 
had  seen  a  shot  fired  in  anger.  The 
colonel  had,  twenty  years  ago,  assisted 
at  a  frontier  expedition;  one  of  the 
majors  had  seen  service  at  the  Cape;  a 
confirmed  deserter  in  E  Company  had 
helped  to  clear  streets  in  Ireland;  but 
that  was  all.  The  regiment  had  been 
put  by  for  many  years.  The  over- 
whelming mass  of  its  rank  and  file  had 
from  three  to  four  years'  service;  the 
non-commissioned  officers  were  under 
thirty  years  old;  and  men  and  sergeants 
alike  had  forgotten  to  speak  of  the 
stories,  written  in  brief  upon  the  colors 


The  Drams  of  the  Fore  and  Aft. 

— the  new  colors  that  had  been  formally 
blessed  by  an  archbishop  in  England 
ere  the  regiment  came  away. 

They  wanted  to  go  to  the  front — they 
were  enthusiastically  anxious  to  go — 
but  they  had  no  knowledge  of  what  war 
meant,  and  there  was  none  to  tell  them. 
They  were  an  educated  regiment,  the 
percentage  of  school  certificates  in  their 
ranks  was  high,  and  most  of  the  men 
could  do  more  than  read  and  write. 
They  had  been  recruited  in  loyal  ob- 
servance of  the  territorial  idea;  but  they 
themselves  had  no  notion  of  that  idea. 
They  were  made  up  of  drafts  from  an 
overpopulated  manufacturing  district. 
The  system  had  put  flesh  and  muscle 
upon  their  small  bones,  but  it  could  not 
put  heart  into  the  sons  of  those  who  for 
generations  had  done  overmuch  work 
30 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft* 

for  over-scanty  pay,  had  sweated  in 
drying-rooms,  stooped  over  looms, 
coughed  among  white-lead,  and  shivered 
on  lime-barges.  The  men  had  found 
food  and  rest  in  the  army,  and  now 
they  were  going  to  fight  "niggers" — 
people  who  ran  away  if  you  shook  a 
stick  at  them.  Wherefore  they  cheered 
lustily  when  the  rumor  ran,  and  the 
shrewd,  clerkly,  non-commissioned  offi- 
cers speculated  on  the  chances  of  battle 
and  of  saving  their  pay.  At  head- 
quarters, men  said  :  "  The  Fore  and  Fit 
have  never  been  under  fire  within  the 
last  generation.  Let  us,  therefore,  break 
them  in  easily  by  setting  them  to  guard 
lines  of  communication."  And  this 
would  have  been  done  but  for  the  fact 
that  British  regiments  were  wanted — • 
badly  wanted — at  the  front,  and  there 
31 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft. 

were  doubtful  native  regiments  that 
could  fill  the  minor  duties.  "Brigade 
'em  with  two  strong  regiments,"  said 
headquarters.  "  They  may  be  knocked 
about  a  bit,  but  they'll  learn  their  busi- 
ness before  they  come  through.  Noth- 
ing like  a  night-alarm  and  a  little  cutting- 
up  of  stragglers  to  make  a  regiment 
smart  in  the  field.  Wait  till  they've  had 
a  half  dozen  sentries'  throats  cut." 

The  colonel  wrote  with  delight  that 
the  temper  of  his  men  was  excellent, 
that  the  regiment  was %  all  that  could  be 
wished,  and  as  sound  as  a  bell.  The 
majors  smiled  with  a  sober  joy,  and  the 
subalterns  waltzed  in  pairs  down  the 
mess-room  after  dinner  and  nearly  shot 
themselves  at  revolver  practice.  But 
there  was  consternation  in  the  hearts  of 
Jakin  and  Lew.  What  was  to  be  done 
32 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft* 

with  the  drums  ?  Would  the  band  go 
to  the  front  ?  How  many  of  the  drums 
would  accompany  the  regiment  ? 

They  took  council  together,  sitting  in 
a  tree  and  smoking. 

"It's  more  than  a  bloomin'  toss-up 
they'll  leave  us  be'ind  at  the  depot  with 
the  women.  You'll  like  that,"  said  Jakin 
sarcastically. 

"  'Cause  o'  Cris,  y'  mean  ?  Wot's  a 
woman,  or  a  'ole  bloomin'  depot  o' 
women,  'longside  o'  the  chanst  of  field- 
service  ?  You  know  I'm  as  keen  on 
goin'  as  you,"  said  Lew. 

"Wish  I  was  a  bloomin'  bugler,"  said 
Jakin,  sadly.  "They'll  take  Tom  Kidd 
along,  that  I  can  plaster  a  wall  with,  an' 
like  as  not  they  won't  take  us." 

"Then  let's  go  an'  make  Tom  Kidd 
so  bloomin'  sick  'e  can't  bugle  no  more. 
33 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft* 

You  'old  'is  'ands,  an'  I'll  kick  him,"  said 
Lew,  wriggling  on  the  branch. 

"That  ain't  no  good,  neither.  We 
ain't  the  sort  o'  characters  to  presoom  on 
our  rep'tations — they're  bad.  If  they 
have  the  band  at  the  depot  we  don't  go, 
and  no  error  there.  If  they  take  the 
band  we  may  get  cast  for  medical  un- 
fitness.  Are  you  medical  fit,  Piggy?" 
said  Jakin,  digging  Lew  in  the  ribs  with 
force. 

"  Yus,"  said  Lew,  with  an  oath.  "  The 
doctor  says  your  'cart's  weak  through 
smokin'  on  an  empty  stummick.  Throw 
a  chest,  an'  I'll  try  yer." 

Jakin  threw  out  his  chest,  which  Lew 
smote  •  vith  all  his  might.  Jakin  turned 
very  pale,  gasped,  crowed,  screwed  up 
his  eyes,  and  said,  "  That's  all  right." 

"You'll  do,"  said  Lew,  "  I've  'eard 
34 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft. 

o'  men  dyin'  when  you  'it  'em  fair  on 
the  breast-bone." 

"  Don't  bring  us  no  nearer  goin', 
though,"  said  Jakin.  "  Do  you  know 
where  we're  ordered  ?" 

"  Gawd  knows,  an'  'e  won't  split  on  a 
pal.  Somewheres  up  to  the  front  to  kill 
Paythans — hairy  big  beggars  that  turn 
you  inside  out  if  they  get  'old  o'  you. 
They  say  the  women  are  good  looking." 

''Any  loot?"  asked  the  abandoned 
Jakin. 

"Not  a  bloomin'  anna,  they  say, 
unless  you  dig  up  the  ground  an'  see 
what  the  niggers  'ave  'id.  They're  a 
poor  lot."  Jakin  stood  upright  on  the 
branch  and  gazed  across  the  plain. 

"Lew,"  said  he,  "there's  the  colonel 
coming.     Colonel's  a  good  old  beggar. 
Let's  go  an'  talk  to  'im." 
35 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft» 

Lew  nearly  fell  out  of  the  tree  at  the 
audacity  of  the  suggestion.  Like  Jakin, 
he  feared  not  God,  neither  regarded  he 
man,  but  there  are  limits  even  to  the 
audacity  of  drummer-boy,  and  to  speak 
to  a  colonel  was — 

But  Jakin  had  slid  down  the  trunk 
and  was  doubled  in  the  direction  of  the 
colonel.  That  officer  was  walking 

O 

wrapped  in  thought  and  visions  of  a 
C.  B. — yes,  even  a  K.  C.  B.,  for  had  he 
not  at  command  one  of  the  best  regi- 
ments of  the  line — the  Fore  and  Fit? 
And  he  was  aware  of  two  small  boys 
charging  down  upon  him.  Once  before, 
it  had  been  solemnly  reported  to  him 
that  "the  drums  were  in  a  state  of 
mutiny;"  Jakin  and  Lew  being  the  ring- 
leaders. This  looked  like  an  organized 
conspiracy. 

36 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft. 

The  boys  halted  at  twenty  yards, 
walked  to  the  regulation  four  paces,  and 
saluted  together,  each  as  well  set-up  as 
a  ramrod  and  little  taller. 

The  colonel  was  in  a  genial  mood; 
the  boys  appeared  very  forlorn  and  un- 
protected on  the  desolate  plain,  and 
one  of  them  was  handsome. 

"Well!"  said  the  colonel,  recognizing 
them.  "Are  you  going  to  pull  me 
down  in  the  open?  I'm  sure  I  never 
interfere  with  you,  even  though" — he 
sniffed  suspiciously — "you  have  been 
smoking." 

It  was  time  to  strike  while  the  iron 
was  hot.  Their  hearts  beat  tumultu- 
ously. 

"Beg  y'  pardon,  sir,"  began  Jakin. 
"  The  reg'ment's  ordered  on  active  ser- 
vice, sir?" 

37 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft. 

"  So  I  believe,"  said  the  colonel,  courte- 
ously. 

"  Is  the  band  goin',  sir?"  said  both  to- 
gether. Then,  without  pause,  "We're 
goin',  sir,  ain't  we?" 

"You!"  said  the  colonel  stepping 
back  the  more  fully  to  take  in  the  two 
small  figures.  "You!  You'd  die  in  the 
first  march." 

"No,  we  wouldn't,  sir.  We  can 
march  with  the  reg'ment  anywheres — 
p'rade  an'  anywhere  else,"  said  Jakin. 

"If  Tom  Kidd  goes,  'e'll  shut  up  like 
a  clasp-knife,"  said  Lew.  "Tom  'as 
very-close  veins  in  both  'is  legs,  sir." 

"Very  how  much?" 

"Very -close  veins,  sir,  That's  why 
they  swells  after  long  p'rade,  sir.  If  'e 
can  go,  we  can  go,  sir." 

Again  the  colonel  looked  at  them  long 
and  intently. 

38 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft. 

"Yes,  the  band  is  going,"  he  said  as 
gravely  as  though  he  had  been  addres- 
sing a  brother  officer.  "  Have  you  any 
parents,  either  of  you  two?" 

"  No,  sir,"  rejoicingly  from  Lew  and 
Jakin.  "  We're  both  orphans,  sir. 
There's  no  one  to  be  considered  of  on 
our  account,  sir." 

"  You  poor  little  sprats,  and  you  want 
tc  go  up  to  the  front  with  the  regiment, 
do  you?  Why?" 

"  I've  wore  the  queen's  uniform  for 
two  years,"  said  Jakin.  "  It's  very  'ard, 
sir,  that  a  man  don't  get  no  recompense 
for  doin'  'is  dooty,  sir." 

"An' — an'  if  I  don't  go,  sir,"  inter- 
rupted Lew,  "the  Bandmaster  'e  says 
'e'll  catch  an'  make  a  bloo — a  blessed 
musician  o'  me,  sir.  Before  I've  seen 
any  service,  sir." 

39 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft. 

The  colonel  made  no  answer  for  a 
long  time.  Then  he  said,  quietly:  "  If 
you're  passed  by  the  doctor,  I  dare  say 
you  can  go.  I  shouldn't  smoke  if  I 
were  you." 

The  boys  saluted  and  disappeared. 
The  colonel  walked  home  and  told  the 
story  to  his  wife,  who  nearly  cried  over 
it.  The  colonel  was  well  pleased.  If 
that  was  the  temper  of  the  children, 
what  would  not  the  men  do? 

Jakin  and  Lew  entered  the  boys' 
barrack-room  with  great  stateliness,  and 
refused  to  hold  any  conversation  with 
their  comrades  for  at  least  ten  minutes. 
Then,  bursting  with  pride  Jakin  drawled: 
"  I've  bin  intervooin'  the  colonel.  Good 
old  beggar  is  the  colonel.  Says  I  to  'im, 
'  Colonel,'  says  I,  'let  me  go  the  front, 
along  o'  the  reg'ment.'  'To  the  front 
40 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft* 

you  shall  go,'  says  'e,  '  an'  I  only  wish 
there  was  more  like  you  among  the 
dirty  little  devils  that  bang  the  bloomin' 
drums.'  Kidd,  if  you  throw  your 
'couterments  at  me  for  tellin'  you  the 
truth  to  your  own  advantage,  your  legs 
'11  swell." 

None  the  less  there  was  a  battle-royal 
in  the  barrack-room,  for  the  boys  were 
consumed  with  envy  and  hate,  and 
neither  Jakin  nor  Lew  behaved  in  con- 
ciliatory wise. 

"  I'm  goin'  out  to  say  adoo  to  my 
girl,"  said  Lew,  to  cap  the  climax. 
"  Don't  none  o'  you  touch  my  kit,  be- 
cause it's  wanted  for  active  service,  me 
bein'  specially  invited  to  go  by  the 
colonel." 

He  strolled  forth  and  whistled  in  the 
clump  of  trees  at  the  back  of  the  married 
41 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft. 

quarters  till  Cris  came  to  him,  and,  the 
preliminary  kisses  being  given  and 
taken,  Lew  began  to  explain  the  situa- 
tion. 

"  I'm  goin'  to  the  front  with  the 
reg'ment,"  he  said  valiantly. 

"  Piggy '  you're  a  little  liar,"  said  Cris, 
but  her  heart  misgave  her,  for  Lew  was 
not  in  the  habit  of  lying. 

"  Liar  yourself,  Cris,"  said  Lew,  slip- 
ping an  arm  round  her.  "  I'm  goin'. 
When  the  reg'ment  marches  out  you'll 
see  me  with  'em,  all  galliant  and  gay. 
Give  us  another  kiss,  Cris,  on  the 
strength  of  it." 

"If  you'd  on'y  stayed  at  the  depot — 
where  you  ought  to  ha'  bin — you  could 
get  as  many  of  'em  as — as  you  damn 
please,"  whimpered  Cris,  putting  up  her 
mouth. 

42 


The  D* urns  of  the  Fore  and  Aft. 

"  It's  'ard,  Cris.  I  grant  you,  it's  'ard. 
But  what's  a  man  to  do?  If  I'd  a-stayed 
at  the  depot,  you  wouldn't  think  any- 
thing of  me." 

"  Like  as  not,  but  I'd  'ave  you  with 
me,  Piggy.  An'  all  the  thinkin'  in  the 
world  isn't  like  kissin'." 

'  An'  all  the  kissin'  in  the  world  isn't 
like  'avin'  a  medal  to  wear  on  the  front 
o'  your  coat." 

"You  won't  get  no  medal." 

"Oh,  yus,  I  shall,  though.  Me  an' 
Jakin  are  the  only  acting-drummers 
that'll  be  took  along.  All  the  rest  is  full 
men,  an  we'll  get  our  medals  with  them." 

"  They  might  ha'  taken  anybody  but 
you,  Piggy.  You'll  get  killed — you're 
so  venturesome.  Stay  with  me,  Piggy, 
darlin',  down  at  the  depot,  an'  I'll  love 
you  true  forever." 

43 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft. 

"  Ain't  you  goih'  to  do  that  now,  Cris? 
You  said  you  was." 

"  O'  course  I  am,  but  th'  other's  more 
comfortable.  Wait  till  you've  groweda 
bit,  Piggy.  You  aren't  no  taller  than 
me  now." 

"  I've  been  in  the  army  for  two  years 
an'  I'm  not  goin'  to  get  out  of  a  chanst 
o*  seein'  service  an'  don't  you  try  to 
make  me  do  so.  I'll  come  back,  Cris, 
an'  when  I  take  on  as  a  man  I'll  marry 
you — marry  you  when  I'm  a  lance." 

"  Promise,  Piggy?" 

Lew  reflected  on  the  future  as  ar- 
ranged by  Jakin  a  short  time  previously, 
but  Cris's  mouth  was  very  near  his  own. 

"  I  promise,  s'elp  me  Gawd  !"  said  he. 

Cris  slid  an  arm  around  his  neck. 

"  I  won't  'old  you  back  no  more, 
Piggy.  Go  away  an'  get  your  medal, 
44 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft, 

an'  I'll  make  you  a  new  button-bag  as 
nice  as  I  know  how,"  she  whispered. 

"  Put  some  o'  your  'air  into  it,  Cris, 
an'  I'll  keep  it  in  my  pocket  so  long's 
I'm  alive." 

Then  Cris  wept  anew,  and  the  inter- 
view ended.  Public  feeling  among  the 
drummer-boys  rose  to  fever  pitch,  and 
the  lives  of  Jakin  and  Lew  became 
unenviable.  Not  only  had  they  been 
permitted  to  enlist  two  years  before  the 
regulation  boy's  age —  fourteen — but,  by 
virtue,  it  seemed,  of  their  extreme  youth, 
they  were  allowed  to  go  to  the  front — 
which  thing  had  not  happened  to  acting- 
drummers  within  the  knowledge  of  boy. 
The  band  which  was  to  accompany  the 
regiment  had  been  cut  down  to  the 
regulation  twenty  men,  the  surplus  re- 
turning to  the  ranks.  Jakin  and  Lew 
45 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft. 

were  attached  to  the  band  as  super- 
numeraries, though  they  would  much 
have  preferred  being  company  buglers. 

"  Don't  matter  much,"  said  Jakin, 
after  the  medical  inspection.  "  Be 
thankful  that  we're  'lowed  to  go  at  all. 
The  doctor  'e  said  that  if  we  could  stand 
what  we  took  from  the  Bazaar-Sergeant's 
son,  we'd  stand  pretty  nigh  everything." 

"  Which  we  will,"  said  Lew,  looking 
tenderly  at  the  ragged  and  ill-made 
housewife  that  Cris  had  given  him,  with 
a  lock  of  her  hair  worked  into  a  sprawl- 
ing "  L"  upon  the  cover. 

"  It  was  the  best  I  could,"  she  sobbed. 
"  I  wouldn't  let  mother  nor  the  sergeant's 
tailor  'elp  me.  Keep  it  always,  Piggy, 
an'  remember  I  love  you  true." 

They  marched  to  the  railway  station, 
nine  hundred  and  sixty  strong,  and 
46 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft. 

every  soul  in  cantonments  turned  out  to 
see  them  go.  The  drummers  gnashed 
their  teeth  at  Jakin  and  Lew  marching 
with  the  band,  the  married  women  wept 
upon  the  platform,  and  the  regiment 
cheered  its  noble  self  black  in  the  face. 

"  A  nice  level  lot,"  said  the  colonel  to 
the  second  in  command  as  they  watched 
the  first  four  companies  entraining. 

"  Fit  to  do  anything,"  said  the  second 
in  command,  enthusiastically.  "  But  it 
seems  to  me  they're  a  thought  too  young 
and  tender  for  the  work  in  hand.  It's 
bitter  cold  up  at  the  front  now." 

"They're  sound  enough,"  said  the 
colonel.  "  We  must  take  our  chance  of 
sick  casualties." 

So  they  went  northward,  ever  north- 
ward, past  droves  and  droves  of  camels, 
armies  of  camp  followers,  and  legions 
47 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft* 

of  laden  mules,  the  throng  thickening 
day  by  day,  till  with  a  shriek  the  train 
pulled  up  at  a  hopelessly  congested 
junction  where  six  lines  of  temporary 
track  accommodated  six  forty-wagon 
trains ;  where  whistles  blew,  Babus 
sweated  and  commissariat  officers  swore 
from  dawn  till  far  into  the  night  amid 
the  wind-driven  chaff  of  the  fodder-bales 
and  the  lowing  of  a  thousand  steers. 

"  Hurry  up — you're  badly  wanted  at 
the  front,"  was  the  message  that  greeted 
the  Fore  and  Aft,  and  the  occupants  of 
the  Red  Cross  carriages  told  the  same 
tale. 

"  'Tisn't  so  much  the  bloomin'  fightin'," 
gasped  a  headbound  trooper  of  hussars 
to  a  knot  of  admiring  Fore  and  Afts. 
"  'Tisn't  so  much  the  bloomin'  fightin', 
though  there's  enough  o'  that.  It's  the 
48 


The  Drums  of  tlie  Fore  and  Aft. 

bloomin'  food  an'  the  bloomin'  climate. 
Frost  all  night  'cept  when  it  hails,  an* 
bilin'  sun  all  day,  an'  the  water  stinks  fit 
to  knock  you  down.  I  got  my  'ead 
chipped  like  a  egg-;  I've  got  pneumonia, 
too,  an'  my  guts  is  all  out  o'  order. 
'Tain't  no  bloomin'  picnic  in  those  parts, 
I  can  tell  you." 

"  Wot  are  the  niggers  like  ?"  demanded 
a  private. 

"  There's  some  prisoners  in  that  train 
yonder.  Go  an'  look  at  'em.  They're 
the  aristocracy  o'  the  country.  The 
common  folk  are  a  dashed  sight  uglier. 
If  you  want  to  know  what  they  fight 
with,  reach  under  my  seat  an'  pull  out 
the  long  knife  that's  there." 

They  dragged  out  and  beheld  for  the 
first  time  the  grim,  bone-handled,  trian- 
gular Afghan  knife.  It  was  almost  as 
long  as  Lew. 

4ft 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft* 

"  That's  the  think  to  j'int  ye,"  said  the 
trooper  feebly.  "  It  can  take  off  a  man's 
arm  at  the  shoulder  as  easy  as  slicing 
butter.  I  halved  the  beggar  that  used 
that  'un,  but  there's  more  of  his  likes  up 
above.  They  don't  understand  thrustin', 
but  they're  devils  to  slice." 

The  men  strolled  across  the  tracks  to 
inspect  the  Afghan  prisoners.  They 
were  unlike  any  "  niggers "  that  the 
Fore  and  Aft  had  ever  met — these  huge 
black-haired,  scowling  sons  of  the  Beni- 
Israel.  As  the  men  stared,  the  Afghans 
spat  freely  and  muttered  one  to  another 
with  lowered  eyes. 

"  My  eyes  !  Wot  awful  swine  !"  said 
Jakin,  who  was  in  the  rear  of  the  pro- 
cession. "  Say,  old  man,  how  you  got 
puckrowed,  eh  ?  Kiswasti  you  wasn't 
hanged  for  your  ugly  face,  hey  ?" 
50 


The  Dmms  of  the  Fore  and  Aft. 

The  tallest  of  the  company  turned,  his 
leg-irons  clanking  at  the  movement,  and 
stared  at  the  boy.  "  See  !"  he  cried  to 
his  fellows  in  Pushto,  "  they  send  chil- 
dren against  us.  What  a  people,  and 
what  fools !" 

"  Hya  /"  said  Jakin,  nodding  his  head 
cheerily.  "  You  go  down  -  country. 
Khana  get,  peenikapanee  get — live  like 
a  bloomin'  rajah  ke  marfik.  That's  a 
better  bandobust  than  baynit  get  it  in 
your  innards.  Good-by,  old  man.  Take 
care  o'  your  beautiful  figure-'ed,  an'  try 
to  look  kushy" 

The  men  laughed  and  fell  in  for  their 
first  march,  when  they  began  to  realize 
that  a  soldier's  life  was  not  all  beer  and 
skittles.  They  were  much  impressed 
with  the  size  and  bestial  ferocity  of 
the  niggers,  whom  they  had  now  learned 
51 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft. 

to  call  "  Paythans,"  and  more  with  the 
exceeding  discomfort  of  their  own  sur- 
roundings. Twenty  old  soldiers  in  the 
corps  would  have  taught  them  how  to 
make  themselves  moderately  snug  at 
night,  but  they  had  no  old  soldiers,  and, 
as  the  troops  on  the  line  of  march  said, 
"  they  lived  like  pigs."  They  learned  the 
heart-breaking  cussedness  of  camp- 
kitchens  and  camels  and  the  depravity 
of  an  E.  P.  tent  and  a  wither-wrung 
mule.  They  studied  animalcule  in  water, 
and  developed  a  few  cases  of  dysentery 
in  their  study. 

At  the  end  of  their  third  march  they 
were  disagreeably  surprised  by  the 
arrival  in  their  camp  of  a  hammered 
iron  slug  which,  fired  from  a  steady 
rest  at  seven  hundred  yards,  flicked  out 
the  brains  of  a  private  seated  by  the  fire. 
52 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft. 

This  robbed  them  of  their  peace  for  a 
night,  and  was  the  beginning  of  a  long- 
range  fire  carefully  calculated  to  that 
end.  In  the  daytime,  they  saw  nothing 
except  an  occasional  puff  of  smoke  from  a 
crag  above  the  line  of  march.  At  night, 
there  were  distant  spurts  of  flame  and 
occasional  casualties,  which  set  the 
whole  camp  blazing  into  the  gloom, 
and,  occasionally,  into  opposite  tents. 
Then  they  swore  vehemently  and  vowed 
that  this  was  magnificent  but  not  war. 

Indeed  it  was  not.  The  regiment 
could  not  halt  for  reprisals  against  the 
sharpshooters  of  the  country-side.  Its 
duty  was  to  go  forward  and  make  con- 
nection with  the  Scotch  and  Gurkha 
troops  with  which  it  was  brigaded.  The 
Afghans  knew  this,  and  knew,  too,  after 
their  first  tentative  shots,  that  they  were 
53 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft. 

dealing  with  a  raw  regiment.  There- 
after they  devoted  themselves  to  the 
task  of  keeping  the  Fore  and  Aft  on  the 
strain.  Not  for  anything  would  they 
have  taken  equal  liberties  with  a  sea- 
soned corps — with  the  wicked  little 
Gurkhas,  whose  delight  it  was  to  lie  out 
in  the  open  on  a  dark  night  and  stalk 
their  stalkers — with  the  terrible,  big  men 
dressed  in  women's  clothes,  who  could 
be  heard  praying  to  their  God  in  the 
night-watches,  and  whose  peace  of  mind 
no  amount  of  "snipping"  could  shake 
— or  with  those  vile  Sikhs,  who  marched 
so  ostentatiously  unprepared,  and  who 
dealt  out  such  grim  reward  to  those  who 
tried  to  profit  by  that  unpreparedness. 
This  white  regiment  was  different — 
quite  different.  It  slept  like  a  hog,  and, 
like  a  hog,  charged  in  every  direction 
54 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft. 

when  it  was  roused.  Its  sentries  walked 
with  a  footfall  that  could  be  heard  for 
a  quarter  of  a  mile;  would  fire  at  any- 
thing that  moved — even  a  driven  don- 
key— and  when  they  had  once  fired, 
could  be  scientifically  "  rushed "  and 
laid  out  a  horror  and  an  offense  against 
the  morning  sun.  Then  there  were 
camp-followers  who  straggled  and  could 
be  cut  up  without  fear.  Their  shrieks 
would  disturb  the  white  boys,  and  the 
loss  of  their  services  would  inconve- 
nience them  sorely. 

Thus,  at  every  march,  the  hidden 
enemy  became  bolder  and  the  regiment 
writhed  and  twisted  under  attacks  it 
could  not  avenge.  The  crowning  tri- 
umph was  a  sudden  night-rush  ending 
in  the  cutting  of  many  tent-ropes,  the 
collapse  of  the  sudden  canvas  and  a 
55 


Tte  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft. 

glorious  knifing  of  the  men  who  strug- 
gled and  kicked  below.  It  was  a  great 
deed,  neatly  carried  out,  and  it  shook 
the  already  shaken  nerves  of  the  Fore 
and  Aft.  All  the  courage  that  they  had 
been  required  to  exercise  up  to  this  point 
was  the  "  two  o'clock  in  the  morning 
courage,"  and  they,  so  far,  had  only 
succeeded  in  shooting  their  comrades 
and  losing  their  sleep. 

Sullen,  discontented,  cold,  savage, 
sick,  with  their  uniforms  dulled  and 
unclean,  the  Fore  and  Aft  joined  their 
brigade. 

"  I  hear  you  had  a  tough  time  of  it 
coming  up,"  said  the  brigadier.  But 
when  he  saw  the  hospital-sheets  his  face 
fell. 

"This  is  bad,"  said  he  to  himself. 
"They're  as  rotten  as  sheep."  And 
56 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft. 

aloud  to  the  colonel,  "  I'm  afraid  we 
can't  spare  you  just  yet.  We  want  all 
we  have,  else  I  should  have  given  you 
ten  days  to  recruit  in." 

The  colonel  winced.  "  On  my  honor, 
sir,"  he  returned,  "there  is  not  the  least 
necessity  to  think  of  sparing1  us.  My 
men  have  been  rather  mauled  and  upset 
without  a  fair  return.  They  only  want 
to  go  in  somewhere  where  they  can  see 
what's  before  them." 

"  Can't  say  I  think  much  of  the  Fore 
and  Aft,"  said  the  brigadier  in  confi- 
dence to  his  brigade-major.  "  They've 
lost  all  their  soldiering,  and,  by  the 
trim  of  them,  might  have  marched 
through  the  country  from  the  other 
side.  A  more  fagged-out  set  of  men  I 
never  put  eyes  on." 

"  Oh,  they'll  improve  as  the  work  goes 
57 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft* 

on.  The  parade  gloss  has  been  rubbed 
off  a  little,  but  they'll  put  on  field  polish 
before  long,"  said  the  brigade-major. 
"  They've  been  mauled,  and  they  don't 
quite  understand  it." 

They  did  not.  All  the  hitting  was 
on  one  side,  and  it  was  cruelly  hard 
hitting  with  accessories  that  made  them 
sick.  There  was  also  the  real  sickness 
that  laid  hold  of  a  strong  man  and 
dragged  him  howling  to  the  grave. 
Worst  of  all,  their  officers  knew  just  as 
little  of  the  country  as  the  men  them- 
selves, and  looked  as  if  they  did.  The 
Fore  and  Aft  were  in  a  thoroughly 
unsatisfactory  condition,  but  they  be- 
lieved that  all  would  be  well  if  they 
once  got  a  fair  go-in  at  the  enemy. 
Pot-shots  up  and  down  the  valleys  were 
unsatisfactory,  and  the  bayonet  never 
58 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft. 

seemed  to  get  a  chance.  Perhaps  it 
was  as  well,  for  a  long-limbed  Afghan 
with  a  knife  had  a  reach  of  eight  feet, 
and  could  carry  away  enough  lead  to 
disable  three  Englishmen.  The  Fore 
and  Aft  would  like  some  rifle  practice 
at  the  enemy — all  seven  hundred  rifles 
blazing  together.  That  wish  showed 
the  mood  of  the  men. 

The  Gurkhas  walked  into  their  camp, 
and  in  broken,  barrack-room  English 
strove  to  fraternize  with  them;  offered 
them  pipes  of  tobacco,  and  stood  them 
treat  at  the  canteen.  But  the  Fore  and 
Aft,  not  knowing  much  of  the  nature  of 
the  Gurkhas,  treated  them  as  they 
would  treat  any  other  "niggers,"  and 
the  little  men  in  green  trotted  back 
to  their  firm  friends,  the  Highlanders, 
and  with  many  grins  confided  to  them: 
59 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft, 

"  That  damn  white  regiment  no  damn 
use.  Sulky — ugh!  Dirty — ugh!  Hya, 
any  tot  for  Johnny?"  Whereat  the 
Highlanders  smote  the  Gurkhas  as  to 
the  head,  and  told  them  not  to  vilify  a 
British  regiment,  and  the  Gurkhas 
grinned  cavernously,  for  the  Highlanders 
were  their  elder  brothers  and  entitled  to 
the  privileges  of  kinship.  The  common 
soldier  who  touches  a  Gurkha  is  more 
than  likely  to  have  his  head  sliced  open. 
Three  days  later,  the  brigadier  ar- 
ranged a  battle  according  to  the  rules 
of  war  and  the  peculiarity  of  the  Afghan 
temperament.  The  enemy  were  mass- 
ing in  inconvenient  strength  among  the 
hills,  and  the  moving  of  many  green 
standards  warned  him  that  the  tribes 
were  "  up  "  in  aid  of  the  Afghan  regular 
troops.  A  squadron  and  a  half  of  Ben- 

60 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft. 

gal  lancers  represented  the  available 
cavalry,  and  two  screw-guns  borrowed 
from  a  column  thirty  miles  away,  the 
artillery  at  the  general's  disposal. 

"  If  they  stand,  as  I've  a  very  strong 
notion  that  they  will,  I  fancy  we  shall 
see  an  infantry  fight  that  will  be  worth 
watching,"  said  the  brigadier.  "We'll 
do  it  in  style.  Each  regiment  shall  be 
played  into  action  by  its  band,  and  we'll 
hold  the  cavalry  in  reserve." 

"  For  all  the  reserve?"  somebody 
asked. 

"  For  all  the  reserve;  because  we're 
going  to  crumple  them  up,"  said  the 
brigadier,  who  was  an  extraordinary 
brigadier,  and  did  not  believe  in  the 
value  of  a  reserve  when  dealing  with 
Asiatics.  And,  indeed,  when  you  come 
to  think  of  it,  had  the  British  army  con- 
61 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft. 

sistently  waited  for  reserves  in  all  its 
little  affairs,  the  boundaries  of  6ur 
empire  would  have  stopped  at  Brighton 
beach. 

That   battle   was    to    be    a   glorious 
battle. 

The  three  regiments  debouching  from 
three  separate  gorges,  after  duly  crown- 
ning  the  heights  above,  were  to  con- 
verge from  the  center,  left,  and  right 
upon  what  we  will  call  the  Afghan 
army,  then  stationed  toward  the  lower 
extremity  of  a  flat-bottomed  valley. 
Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  three  sides  of 
the  valley  practically  belonged  to  the 
English,  while  the  fourth  was  strictly 
Afghan  property.  In  the  event  of 
defeat,  the  Afghans  had  the  rocky  hills 
to  fly  to,  where  the  fire  from  the  guer- 
rilla tribes  in  aid  would  cover  their 
62 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft. 

retreat.  In  the  event  of  victory,  these 
same  tribes  would  rush  down  and  lend 
their  weight  to  the  rout  of  the  British. 

The  screw-guns  were  to  shell  the  head 
of  each  Afghan  rush  that  was  made  in 
close  formation,  and  the  cavalry,  held  in 
reserve  in  the  right  valley,  were  to 
gently  stimulate  the  break-up  which 
would  follow  on  the  combined  attack. 
The  brigadier,  sitting  upon  a  rock  over- 
looking the  valley,  would  watch  the 
battle  unrolled  at  his  feet.  The  Fore 
and  Aft  would  debouch  from  the  cen- 
tral gorge,  the  Gurkhas  from  the  left, 
and  the  Highlanders  from  the  right,  for 
the  reason  that  the  left  flank  of  the 
enemy  seemed  as  though  it  required  the 
most  hammering.  It  was  not  every 
day  that  an  Afghan  force  would  take 
ground  in  the  open,  and  the  brigadier 
63 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft. 

was  resolved  to  make  the  most  of  it. 
"If  we  only  had  a  few  more  men," 
he  said  plaintively,  "  we  could  surround 
the  creatures  and  crumble  'em  up 
thoroughly.  As  it  is,  I'm  afraid  we  can 
only  cut  them  up  as  they  run.  It's  a 
great  pity." 

The  Fore  and  Aft  had  enjoyed  un- 
broken peace  for  five  days,  and  were 
beginning,  in  spite  of  dysentery,  to 
recover  their  nerve.  But  they  were  not 
happy,  for  they  did  not  know  the  work 
in  hand,  and  had  they  known,  would 
not  have  known  how  to  do  it.  Through- 
out those  five  days  in  which  old  soldiers 
might  have  taught  them  the  craft  of  the 
game,  they  discussed  together  their  mis- 
adventures in  the  past — how  such  an 
one  was  alive  at  dawn  and  dead  ere  the 
dusk,  and  with  what  shrieks  and  strug- 
64 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft. 

gles  such  another  had  given  up  his  soul 
under  the  Afghan  knife.  Death  was  a 
new  and  horrible  thing  to  the  sons  of 
mechanics  who  were  used  to  die  de- 
cently of  zymotic  disease;  and  their 
careful  conservation  in  barracks  had 
done  nothing  to  make  them  look  upon 
it  with  less  dread. 

Very  early  in  the  dawn  the  bugles 
began  to  blow,  and  the  Fore  and  Aft, 
filled  with  a  misguided  enthusiasm, 
turned  out  without  waiting  for  a  cup  of 
coffee  and  a  biscuit;  and  were  rewarded 
by  being  kept  under  arms  in  the  cold 
while  the  other  regiments  leisurely  pre- 
pared for  the  fray.  All  the  world 
knows  that  it  is  ill  taking  the  breeks  off 
a  Highlander.  It  is  much  iller  to  try 
to  make  him  stir  unless  he  is  convinced 
of  the  necessity  for  haste. 
65 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft. 

The  Fore  and  Aft  waited,  leaning 
upon  their  rifles  and  listening  to  the 
protests  of  their  empty  stomachs.  The 
colonel  did  his  best  to  remedy  the 
default  of  lining  as  soon  as  it  was  borne 
in  upon  him  that  the  affair  would  not 
begin  at  once,  and  so  well  did  he  suc- 
ceed that  the  coffee  was  just  ready  when 
— the  men  moved  off,  their  band  lead- 
ing. Even  then  there  had  been  a  mis- 
take in  time,  and  the  Fore  and  Aft 
came  out  into  the  valley  ten  minutes  be- 
fore the  proper  hour.  Their  band 
wheeled  to  the  right  after  reaching  the 
open,  and  retired  behind  a  little  rocky 
knoll,  still  playing  while  the  regiment 
went  past. 

It  was  not  a  pleasant  sight  that  opened 
on  the  unobstructed  view,  for  the  lower 
end  of  the  valley  appeared  to  be  filled 
66 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft. 

by  an  army  in  position — real  and  actual 
regiments  attired  in  red  coats,  and — of 
this  there  was  no  doubt — firing-  Martini- 
Henri  bullets  which  cut  up  the  ground 
a  hundred  yards  in  front  of  the  leading 
company.  Over  that  pock-marked 
ground  the  regiment  had  to  pass,  and  it 
opened  the  ball  with  a  general  and  pro- 
found courtesy  to  the  piping  pickets; 
ducking  in  perfect  time, .  as  though  it 
had  been  brazed  on  a  rod.  Being  half 
capable  of  thinking  for  itself,  it  fired  a 
volley  by  the  simple  process  of  pitching 
its  rifle  into  its  shoulder  and  pulling  the 
trigger.  The  bullets  may  have  ac- 
counted for  some  of  the  watchers  on 
the  hillside,  but  they  certainly  did  not 
affect  the  mass  of  enemy  in  front,  while 
the  noise  of  the  rifles  drowned  any 
orders  that  might  have  been  given. 
67 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft. 

"  Good  God!"  said  the  brigadier, 
sitting  on  the  rock  high  above  all. 
"  That  regiment  has  spoiled  the  whole 
show.  Hurry  up  the  others,  and  let  the 
screw-guns  get  off." 

But  the  screw-guns  in  working  round 
the  heights,  had  stumbled  upon  a  wasp's 
nest  of  a  small  mud  fort  which  they  in- 
continently shelled  at  eight  hundred 
yards,  to  the  huge  discomfort  of  the 
occupants,  who  were  unaccustomed  to 
weapons  of  such  devilish  precision. 

The  Fore  and  Aft  continued  to  go 
forward,  but  with  shortened  stride. 
Where  were  the  other  regiments,  and 
why  did  these  niggers  use  Martinis? 
They  took  open  order  instinctively, 
lying  down  and  firing  at  random,  rush- 
ing a  few  paces  forward  and  lying 
down  again,  according  to  the  regula- 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft* 

tions.  Once  in  this  formation,  each 
man  felt  himself  desperately  alone,  and 
edged  in  toward  his  fellow  for  comfort's 
sake. 

Then  the  crack  of  his  neighbor's  rifle 
at  his  ear  led  him  to  fire  as  rapidly  as 
he  could — again  for  the  sake  of  the 
comfort  of  the  noise.  The  reward  was 
not  long  delayed.  Five  volleys  plunged 
the  files  in  banked  smoke  impenetrable 
to  the  eye,  and  the  bullets  began  to 
take  ground  twenty  or  thirty  yards  in 
front  of  the  firers,  as  the  weight  of  the 
bayonet  dragged  down,  and  the  right 
arms  wearied  with  holding  the  kick  of 
the  leaping  Martini.  The  company 
commanders  peered  helplessly  through 
the  smoke,  the  more  nervous  mechanic- 
ally trying  to  fan  it  away  with  their 
their  helmets. 

69 


The  Drums  of  tlie  Fore  and  Aft. 

"High  and  to  the  left!"  bawled  a 
captain  till  he  was  hoarse.  "  No  good! 
Cease  firing,  and  let  it  drift  away  a 
bit." 

Three  or  four  times  the  bugles 
shrieked  the  order,  and  when  it  was 
obeyed  the  Fore  and  Aft  looked  that 
their  foe  should  be  lying  before  them  in 
mown  swaths  of  men.  A  light  wind 
drove  the  smoke  to  leeward,  and  showed 
the  enemy  still  in  position  and  appar- 
ently unaffected.  A  quarter  of  a  ton  of 
lead  had  been  buried  a  furlong  in  front 
of  them,  as  the  ragged  earth  attested. 

That  was  not  demoralizing.  They 
were  waiting  for  the  mad  riot  to  die 
down,  and  were  firing  quietly  into  the 
heart  of  the  smoke.  A  private  of  the 
Fore  and  Aft  spun  up  his  company 
shrieking  with  agony,  another  was  kick- 
70 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft» 

ing  the  earth  and  gasping,  and  a  third, 
ripped  through  the  lower  intestines  by  a 
jagged  bullet,  was  calling  aloud  on  his 
comrades  to  put  him  out  of  his  pain. 
These  were  the  casualties,  and  they  were 
not  soothing  to  hear  or  see.  The  smoke 
cleared  to  a  dull  haze. 

Then  the  foe  began  to  shout  with  a 
great  shouting  and  a  mass — a  black 
mass — detached  itself  from  the  main 
body,  and  rolled  over  the  ground  at 
horrid  speed.  It  was  composed  of,  per- 
haps, three  hundred  men,  who  would 
shout  and  fire  and  slash  if  the  rush  of 
their  fifty  comrades,  who  were  deter- 
mined to  die,  carried  home.  The  fifty 
were  Ghazis,  half-maddened  with  drugs 
and  wholly  mad  with  religious  fanati- 
cism. When  they  rushed,  the  British  fire 
ceased,  and  in  the  lull  the  order  was 
71 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft, 

given  to  close  ranks  and  meet  them 
with  the  bayonet. 

Any  one  who  knew  the  business 
could  have  told  the  Fore  and  Aft  that 
the  only  way  of  dealing  with  the  Ghazi 
rush  is  by  volleys  at  long  ranges;  be- 
cause a  man  who  means  to  die,  who 
desires  to  die,  who  wil*  gain  heaven  by 
dying,  must,  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten, 
kill  a  man  who  has  a  lingering  prejudice 
in  favor  of  life  if  he  can  close  with  the 
latter.  Where  they  should  have  closed 
and  gone  forward,  the  Fore  and  Aft 
opened  out  and  skirmished,  and  where 
they  should  have  opened  out  and  fired, 
they  closed  and  waited. 

A   man    dragged   from   his   blankets 

half-awake   and    unfed    is   never    in  a 

pleasant  frame  of  mind.     Nor  does  his 

happiness  increase  when  he  watches  the 

72 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft, 

whites  of  the  eyes  of  three  hundred  six- 
foot  fiends  upon  whose  beards  the  foam 
is  lying,  upon  whose  tongues  is  a  roar  of 
wrath,  and  in  whose  hands  are  three- 
foot  knives. 

The  Fore  and  Aft  heard  the  Gurkha 
bugles  bringing  that  regiment  forward 
at  the  double,  while  the  neighing  of  the 
Highland  pipes  came  from  the  left. 
They  strove  to  stay  where  they  were, 
though  the  bayonets  wavered  down  the 
line  like  the  oars  of  a  ragged  boat. 
Then  they  felt  body  to  body  the  amaz- 
ing physical  strength  of  their  foes;  a 
shriek  of  pain  ended  the  rush,  and  the 
knives  fell  amid  scenes  not  to  be  told. 
The  men  clubbed  together  and  smote 
blindly — as  often  as  not  at  their  own 
fellows.  Their  front  crumpled  like 
paper,  and  the  fifty  Ghazis  passed  on; 
73 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft. 

their  backers,  now  drunk  with  success, 
fighting  as  madly  as  they. 

Then  the  rear  ranks  were  bidden  to 
close  up,  and  the  subalterns  dashed  into 
the  stew — alone.  For  the  rear  rank  had 
heard  the  clamor  in  front,  the  yells  and 
the  howls  of  pain,  and  had  seen  the  dark 
stale  blood  that  makes  afraid.  They 
were  not  going  to  stay.  It  was  the 
rushing  of  the  camps  over  again.  Let 
their  officers  go  to  hell  if  they  chose; 
they  would  get  away  from  the  knives. 

"  Come  on !"  shrieked  the  subalterns, 
and  their  men,  cursing  them,  drew  back, 
each  closing  into  his  neighbor  and 
wheeling  round. 

Charteris  and  Devlin,  subalterns  of 
the  last  company,  faced  their  death 
alone  in  the  belief  that  their  men  would 
follow. 

74 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft. 

"You've  killed  me,  you  cowards," 
sobbed  Devlin,  and  dropped,  cut  from 
the  shoulder-strap  to  the  center  of  the 
chest,  and  a  fresh  detachment  of  his 
men  retreating,  always  retreating,  tram- 
pled him  under  foot  as  they  made  for 
the  pass  whence  they  had  emerged. 

/  kissed  her  in  the  kitchen,  and  I  kissed 

her  in  the  halL 

Child  un,  child  un,  follow  me  ! 
Oh,  Golly,  said  the  cook,gs  he  gwine  to 

kiss  us  all? 
Halla — Halla — Halla — Hallelujah? 

The  Gurkhas  were  pouring  through 
the  left  gorge  and  over  the  heights  at 
the  double  to  the  invitation  of  their 
regimental  quickstep.  The  black  rocks 
were  crowned  with  dark-green  spiders 
as  the  bugles  gave  tongue  jubilantly : 
75 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft, 

In  the  morning!     In  the  morning  by  the 

bright  light ! 
When  Gabriel  blows  his  trumpet  in  the 

morning  ! 

The  Gurkha  rear  companies  tripped 
and  blundered  over  loose  stones.  The 
front  files  halted  for  a  moment  to  take 
stock  of  the  valley  and  to  settle  stray 
boot-laces.  Then  a  happy  little  sigh  of 
contentment  soughed  down  the  ranks, 
and  it  was  as  though  the  land  smiled, 
for  behold  there  below  was  the  enemy, 
and  it  was  to  meet  them  that  the  Gurk- 
has had  doubled  so  hastily.  There  was 
much  enemy.  There  would  be  amuse- 
ment. The  little  men  hitched  their 
kukris  well  to  hand,  and  gaped  expect- 
antly at  their  officers  as  terriers  grin  ere 
the  stone  is  cast  for  them  to  fetch.  The 
76 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft. 

Gurkhas'  ground  sloped  downward  to 
the  valley,  and  they  enjoyed  a  fair  view 
of  the  proceeding's.  They  sat  upon  the 
bowlders  to  watch,  for  their  officers  were 
not  going  to  waste  their  wind  in  assist- 
ing to  repulse  a  Ghazi  rush  more  than 
half  a  mile  away.  Let  the  white  men 
look  to  their  own  front. 

"  Hi !  yi !"  said  the  Subadar  major, 
who  was  sweating  profusely.  "  Dam 
fools  yonder,  stand  close-order !  This 
is  no  time  for  close-order,  it's  the  time 
for  volleys.  Ugh!"  Horrified,  amused, 
and  indignant,  the  Gurkhas  beheld  the 
retirement — let  us  be  gentle — of  the  Fore 
and  Aft  with  a  running  chorus  of  oaths 
and  commentaries. 

"  They   run !      The   white   men   run  ! 
Colonel  Sahib,  may  we  also  do  a  little 
running  ?"  murmured  Runbir  Thappa, 
the  senior  Jemadar. 
77 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft. 

But  the  colonel  would  have  none  of 
it.  "  Let  the  beggars  be  cut  up  a  little," 
said  he  wrathfully.  "  Serves  'em  right 
They'll  be  prodded  into  facing  round  in 
a  minute."  He  looked  through  his  field- 
glasses,  and  caught  the  glint  of  an  offi- 
cer's sword. 

"  Beating  'em  with  the  flat — damned 
conscripts  !  How  the  Ghazis  are  walk- 
ing into  them  !"  said  he. 

The  Fore  and  Aft,  heading  back,  bore 
with  them  their  officers.  The  narrow- 
ness of  the  pass  forced  the  mob  into 
solid  formation,  and  the  rear  rank  de- 
livered some  sort  of  a  wavering  volley. 
The  Ghazis  drew  off,  for  they  did  not 
know  what  reserves  the  gorge  might  hide. 
Moreover,  it  was  never  wise  to  chase 
white  men  too  far.  They  returned  as 
wolves  return  to  cover,  satisfied  with  the 
78 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft* 

slaughter  that  they  had  done,  and  only 
stopping  to  slash  at  the  wounded  on  the 
ground.  A  quarter  of  a  mile  had  the 
Fore  and  Aft  retreated,  and  now, 
jammed  in  the  pass,  was  quivering  with 
pain,  shaken  and  demoralized  with  fear, 
while  the  officers,  maddened  beyond 
control,  smote  the  men  with  the  hilts 
and  the  flats  of  their  swords. 

"Get  back!  Get  back,  you  cowards 
— you  women!  Right  about  face — 
column  of  companies,  form  —  you 
hounds!"  shouted  the  colonel,  and  the 
subalterns  swore  aloud.  But  the  regi- 
ment wanted  to  go — to  go  anywhere 
out  of  the  range  of  those  merciless 
knives.  It  swayed  to  and  fro  irreso- 
lutely with  shouts  and  outcries,  while 
from  the  right  the  Gurkhas  dropped 
volley  after  volley  of  cripple-stopper 
79 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft. 

Snider  bullets  at  long  range  into  the 
mob  of  the  Ghazis  returning  to  their 
own  troops. 

The  Fore  and  Aft  band,  though  pro- 
tected from  direct  fire  by  the  rocky 
knoll  under  which  it  had  sat  down,  fled 
at  the  first  rush.  Jakin  and  Lew  would 
have  fled  also,  but  their  short  legs  left 
them  fifty  yards  in  the  rear,  and  by  the 
time  the  band  had  mixed  with  the  regi- 
ment, they  were  painfully  aware  that 
they  would  have  to  close  in  alone  and 
unsupported. 

"  Get  back  to  that  rock,"  gasped  Jakin. 
"  They  won't  see  us  there." 

And  they  returned  to  the  scattered 
instruments  of  the  band;  their  hearts 
nearly  bursting  their  ribs. 

"Here's  a  nice  show  for  us"  said 
Jakin,  throwing  himself  full  length  on 
80 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft. 

the  ground.  "  A  bloomin'  fine  show  for 
British  infantry!  Oh,  the  devils!  They've 
gone  an'  left  us  here  alone!  Wot'll  we 
do?" 

Lew  took  possession  of  a  cast-off 
water-bottle,  which  naturally  was  full  of 
canteen  rum,  and  drank  till  he  coughed 
again. 

"Drink,"  said  he  shortly.  "They'll 
come  back  in  a  minute  or  two — you 
see." 

Jakin  drank,  but  there  was  no  sign  of 
the  regiment's  return.  They  could  hear 
a  dull  clamor  from  the  head  of  the 
valley  of  retreat,  and  saw  the  Ghazis 
slink  back,  quickening  their  pace  as  the 
Gurkhas  fired  at  them. 

"We're  all  that's  left  of  the  band,  an' 
we'll  be  cut  up  as  sure  as  death,"  said 
Jakin. 

81 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft. 

"  I'll  die  game,  then,"  said  Lew  thickly, 
fumbling  with  his  tiny  drummer's  sword. 
The  drink  was  working  on  his  brain  as 
it  was  on  Jakin's. 

"  'Old  on!  I  know  something  better 
than  fightin',"  said  Jakin,  stung  by  the 
splendor  of  a  sudden  thought,  due 
chiefly  to  rum.  "Tip  our  bloomin* 
cowards  yonder  the  word  to  come  back. 
The  Paythan  beggars  are  well  away. 
Come  on,  Lew!  We  won't  get  hurt. 
Take  the  fife  an'  give  me  the  drum. 
The  Old  Step  for  all  your  bloomin'  guts 
are  worth!  There's  a  few  of  our  men 
coming  back  now.  Stand  up,  ye 
drunken  little  defaulter.  By  your  right 
— quick  march!" 

He  slipped  the  drum-sling  over  his 
shoulder,  thrust  the  fife  into  Lew's  hand, 
and  the  two  boys  marched  out  of  the 
82 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft. 

cover  of  the  rock  into  the  open,  making 
a  hideous  hash  of  the  first  bars  of  the 
"  British  Grenadiers." 

As  Lew  had  said,  a  few  of  the  Fore 
and  Aft  were  coming  back  sullenly  and 
shamefacedly  under  the  stimulus  of 
blows  a*nd  abuse;  their  red  coats  shone 
at  the  head  of  the  valley,  and  behind 
them  were  wavering  bayonets.  But 
between  this  shattered  line  and  the 
enemy,  who  with  Afghan  suspicion 
feared  that  the  hasty  retreat  meant  an 
ambush,  and  had  not  moved  therefore, 
lay  at  least  half  a  mile  of  level  ground 
dotted  only  by  the  wounded  lying 
about. 

The  tune  settled  into  full  swing,  and 
the  boys  kept  shoulder  to  shoulder, 
Jakin  banging  the  drum  as  one  pos- 
sessed. The  one  fife  made  a  thin  and 
83 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft. 

pitiful  squeaking,  but  the  tune  carried 
far,  even  to  the  Gurkhas. 

"  Come  on,  you  dogs!"  muttered  Jakin 
to  himself.  "  Are  we  to  play  forever?" 
Lew  was  staring  straight  in  front  of 
him  and  marching  more  stiffly  than  ever 
he  had  done  on  parade. 

And  in  bitter  mockery  of  the  distant 
mob,  the  old  tune  of  the  Old  Line 
shrilled  and  rattled: 

Some  talk  of  Alexander, 

And  some  of  Hercules  / 
Of  Hector  and  Lysander, 

And  such  great  names  as  these  / 

There  was  a  far-off  clapping  of  hands 

from  the  Gurkhas,  and  a  roar  from  the 

Highlanders  in  the  distance,  but  never 

a  shot  was  fired  by  British  or  Afghan. 

84 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft 

The  two  little  red  dots  moved  forward 
in  the  open  parallel  to  the  enemy's 
front. 

But  of  all  the  world's  great  heroes 
There  s  none  that  can  compare, 

With  a  tow-row-row-roiv-row-row, 
To  the  British  Grenadier! 

The  men  of  the  Fore  and  Aft  were 
gathering  thick  at  the  entrance  into  the 
plain.  The  brigadier  on  the  heights  far 
above  was  speechless  with  rage.  Still 
no  movement  from  the  enemy.  The 
day  stayed  to  watch  the  children. 

Jakin  halted  and  beat  the  long  roll  of 
the  assembly,  while  the  fife  squealed 
despairingly. 

"  Right  about  face!     Hold    up,  Lew, 
you're  drunk,"  said  Jakin.     They  wheel- 
ed and  marched  back: 
85 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft. 

Those  heroes  of  antiquity 

Ne'er  saw  a  cannon-ball, 
Nor  knew  the  force  o  powder, 

"  Here  they  come!"  said  Jakin.  "  Go 
on,  Lew:" 

To  scare  their  foes  wit  half 

The  Fore  and  Aft  were  pouring  out 
of  the  valley.  What  officers  had  said 
to  men  in  that  time  of  shame  and 
humiliation  will  never  be  known,  for 
neither  officers  nor  men  speak  of  it 
now. 

"  They  are  coming  anew!"  shouted  a 
priest  among  the  Afghans.  "  Do  not 
kill  the  boys!  Take  them  alive,  and  they 
shall  be  of  our  faith." 

But  the  first  volley  had  been  fired, 
and  Lew  dropped  on  his  face.  Jackin 
86 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft, 

stood  for  a  minute,  spun  round,  and 
collapsed  as  the  Fore  and  Aft  came  for- 
ward, the  maledictions  of  their  officers 
in  their  ears,  and  in  their  hearts  the 
shame  of  open  shame. 

Half  the  men  had  seen  the  drummers 
die,  and  they  made  no  sign.  They  did 
not  even  shout.  They  doubled  out 
straight  across  the  plain  in  open  order, 
and  they  did  not  fire. 

"This,"  said  the  Colonel  of  Gurkhas, 
softly,  "  is  the  real  attack,  as  it  ought  to 
have  been  delivered.  Come  on,  my 
children." 

"  Ulu-lu-lu-lu  !"  squealed  the  Gurkhas, 
and  came  down  with  a  joyful  clicking 
of  kukris — those  vicious  Gurkha  knives. 

On  the  right  there  was  no  rush.  The 
Highlanders  cannily  commending  their 
souls  to  God  (for  it  matters  as  much  to- 
87 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft. 

a  dead  man  whether  he  has  been  shot  in 
a  border  scuffle  or  at  Waterloo),  opened 
out  and  fired  according-  to  their  custom, 
that  is  to  say,  without  heat  and  without 
intervals,  while  the  screw-guns,  having 
disposed  of  the  impertinent  mud  fort 
afore  -  mentioned,  dropped  shell  after 
shell  into  the  clusters  round  the  flicker- 
ing green  standards  on  the  heights. 

"  Charging  is  an  unfortunate  neces- 
sity," murmured  the  color-sergeant  of 
the  right  company  of  the  Highlanders. 

"  It  makes  the  men  sweer  so,  but  I 
am  thinkin'  that  it  will  come  to  a  charrge 
if  these  black  devils  stand  much  longer. 
Stewarrt,  man,  you're  firing  into  the  eye 
of  the  sun,  and  he'll  not  take  any  harm 
for  government  ammuneetion.  A  foot 
lower  and  a  geat  deal  slower !  What 
are  the  English  doing  ?  They're  very 
88 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft. 

quiet    there   in   the    center.      Running 
again  ?" 

The  English  were  not  running.  They 
were  hacking  and  hewing  and  stabbing, 
for  though  one  white  man  is  seldom 
physically  a  match  for  an  Afghan  in  a 
sheep-skin  or  wadded  coat,  yet,  through 
the  pressure  of  many  white  men  behind, 
and  a  certain  thirst  for  revenge  in  his 
heart,  he  becomes  capable  of  doing 
much  with  both  ends  of  his  rifle.  The 
Fore  and  Aft  held  their  fire  till  one  bul- 
let could  drive  through  five  or  six  men, 
and  the  front  of  the  Afghan  force  gave 
on  the  volley.  They  then  selected  their 
men,  and  slew  them  with  deep  gasps 
and  short  hacking  coughs,  and  groan- 
ings  of  leather  belts  against  strained 
bodies,  and  realized  for  the  first  time 
that  an  Afghan  attacked  is  far  less 
89 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft. 

formidable  than  an  Afghan  attacking; 
which  fact  old  soldiers  might  have  told 
them. 

But  they  had  no  old  soldiers  in  their 
ranks. 

The  Gurkhas'  stall  at  the  bazaar  was 
the  noisiest,  for  the  men  were  engaged 
— to  a  nasty  noise  as  of  beef  being  cut 
on  the  block — with  the  kukri,  which 
they  preferred  to  the  bayonet;  well 
knowing  how  the  Afghan  hates  the 
half-moon  blade. 

As  the  Afghans  wavered,  the  green 
standards  on  the  mountain  moved  down 
to  assist  them  in  a  last  rally;  which  was 
unwise.  The  lancers  chafing  in  the 
right  gorge  had  thrice  dispatched  their 
only  subaltern  as  galloper  to  report  on 
the  progress  of  affairs.  On  the  third 
occasion  he  returned,  with  a  bullet-graze 
90 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft. 

on  his  knee,  swearing  strange  oaths  in 
Hindoostanee,  and  saying  that  all  things 
were  ready.  So  that  squadron  swung 
round  the  right  of  the  Highlanders  with 
a  wicked  whistling  of  wind  in  the  pen- 
nons of  its  lances,  and  fell  upon  the 
remnant  just  when,  according  to  all  the 
rules  of  war,  it  should  have  waited  for 
the  foe  to  show  more  signs  of  wavering. 
But  it  was  a  dainty  charge,  deftly  de- 
livered, and  it  ended  by  the  cavalry 
finding  itself  at  the  head  of  the  pass  by 
which  the  Afghans  intended  to  retreat; 
and  down  the  track  that  the  lancers  had 
made  streamed  two  companies  of  the 
Highlanders,  which  was  never  intended 
by  the  brigadier.  The  new  develop- 
ment was  successful.  It  detached  the 
enemy  from  his  base  as  a  sponge  is 
torn  from  a  rock,  and  left  him  ringed 
91 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft. 

about  with  fire  in  that  pitiless  plain. 
And  as  a  sponge  is  chased  round  the 
bath-tub  by  the  hand  of  the  bather,  so 
were  the  Afghans  chased  till  they  broke 
into  little  detachments  much  more  diffi- 
cult to  dispose  of  than  large  masses. 

"  See !"  quoth  the  brigadier.  "  Every- 
thing has  come  as  I  arranged.  We've 
cut  their  base,  and  now  we'll  bucket  'em 
to  pieces." 

A  direct  hammering  was  all  that  the 
brigadier  had  dared  to  hoped  for,  con- 
sidering the  size  of  the  force  at  his  dis- 
posal; but  men  who  stand  or  fall  by  the 
errors  of  their  opponents  may  be  for- 
given for  turning  Chance  into  Design. 
The  bucketing  went  forward  merrily. 
The  Afghan  forces  were  upon  the  run 
— the  run  of  wearied  wolves  who  snarl 
and  bite  over  their  shoulders.  The  red 
92 


The  Drams  of  the  Fore  and  Af  t» 

lances  dipped  by  twos  and  threes,  and, 
with  a  shriek,  up  rose  the  lance-butt,  like 
a  spar  on  a  stormy  sea,  as  the  trooper 
cantering  forward  cleared  his  point. 
The  lancers  kept  between  their  prey  and 
the  steep  hills,  for  all  who  could  were 
trying  to  escape  from  the  valley  of 
death.  The  Highlanders  gave  the  fugi- 
tives two  hundred  yards'  law,  and  then 
brought  them  down,  gasping  and  chok- 
ing, ere  they  could  reach  the  protection 
of  the  bowlders  above.  The  Gurkhas 
followed  suit;  but  the  Fore  and  Aft  were 
killing  on  their  own  account,  for  they 
had  penned  a  mass  of  men  between 
their  bayonets  and  a  wall  of  rock,  and 
the  flash  of  the  rifles  was  lighting  the 
wadded  coats. 

"  We   can    not   hold    them,    Captain 
Sahib !"  panted  a  ressaidar  of  lancers. 
93 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft, 

"  Let  us  try  the  carbine.  The  lance  is 
good,  but  it  wastes  time." 

They  tried  the  carbine,  and  still  the 
enemy  melted  away — fled  up  the  hills 
by  hundreds  when  there  were  only 
twenty  bullets  to  stop  them.  On  the 
heights  the  screw-guns  ceased  firing — 
they  had  run  out  of  ammunition — and 
the  brigadier  groaned,  for  the  musketry 
fire  could  not  sufficiently  smash  the 
retreat.  Long  before  the  last  volleys 
were  fired  the  litters  were  out  in  force 
looking  for  the  wounded.  The  battle 
was  over,  and,  but  for  want  of  fresh 
troops,  the  Afghans  would  have  been 
wiped  off  the  earth.  As  it  was  they 
counted  their  dead  by  hundreds,  and 
nowhere  were  the  dead  thicker  than  in 
the  track  of  the  Fore  and  Aft. 

But  the  regiment  did  not  cheer  with 
94 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft, 

the  Highlanders,  nor  did  they  dance 
uncouth  dances  with  the  Gurkhas  among 
the  dead.  They  looked  under  their 
brows  at  the  colonel  as  they  leaned 
upon  their  rifles  and  panted. 

"  Get  back  to  camp,  you !  Haven't 
you  disgraced  yourself  enough  for  one 
day  ?  Go  and  look  to  the  wounded. 
It's  all  you're  fit  for,"  said  the  colonel. 
Yet  for  the  past  hour  the  Fore  and  Aft 
had  been  doing  all  that  mortal  com- 
mander could  expect.  They  had  lost 
heavily  because  they  did  not  know  how 
to  set  about  their  business  with  proper 
skill,  but  they  had  borne  themselves 
gallantly,  and  this  was  their  reward. 

A  young  and  sprightly  color-sergeant, 
who  had  begun  to  imagine  himself  a 
hero,  offered  his  water-bottle  to  a  High- 
lander, whose  tongue  was  black  with 
95 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft* 

thirst.  "  I  drink  with  no  cowards,"  an- 
swered the  youngster  huskily,  and  turn- 
ing to  a  Gurkha,  said  :  "  Hya,  Johnny ! 
Drink  water,  got  it !" 

The  Gurkha  grinned  and  passed 
his  bottle.  TheFore  and  Aft  said  no 
word. 

They  went  back  to  camp  when  the 
field  of  strife  had  been  a  little  mopped 
up  and  made  presentable,  and  the  brig- 
adier, who  saw  himself  a  knight  in  three 
months,  was  the  only  soul  who  was 
complimentary  to  them.  The  colonel 
was  heart-broken  and  the  officers  were 
savage  and  sullen. 

"  Well,"  said  the  brigadier,  "  they  are 
young  troops,  of  course,  and  it  was  not 
unnatural  that  they  should  retire  in  dis- 
order for  a  bit." 

"Oh,  my  only  Aunt  Maria!"  mur- 
96 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft. 

mured  a  junior  staff  officer.  "  Retire  in 
disorder!  It  was  a  bully  run!" 

11  But  they  came  again  as  we  all 
know,"  cooed  the  brigadier,  the  colonel's 
ashy-white  face  before  him,  "and  they 
behaved  as  well  as  could  possibly  be 
expected.  Behaved  beautifully,  indeed. 
I  was  watching  them.  It's  not  a  matter 
to  take  to  heart,  colonel.  As  some  Ger- 
man general  said  of  his  men,  they 
wanted  to  be  shooted  over  a  little,  that 
was  all."  To  himself  he  said — "  Now 
they're  blooded  I  can  give  'em  respon- 
sible work.  It's  as  well  that  they  got 
what  they  did.  Teach  'em  more  than 
half-a-dozen  rifle  flirtations,  that  will — 
later — run  alone  and  bite.  Poor  old 
colonel,  though." 

All  that  afternoon  the  heliograph 
winked  and  flickered  on  the  hills,  striv- 
9? 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft. 

ing  to  tell  the  good  news  to  a  mountain 
forty  miles  away.  And  in  the  evening 
there  arrived — dusty,  sweating,  and 
sore — a  misguided  correspondent  who 
had  gone  out  to  assist  at  a  trumpery 
village-burning  and  who  had  read  off 
the  message  from  afar,  cursing  his  luck 
the  while. 

"  Let's  have  the  details  somehow — as 
full  as  ever  you  can,  please.  It's  the 
first  time  I've  ever  been  left  this  cam- 
paign," said  the  correspondent  to  the 
brigadier;  and  the  brigadier,  nothing 
loath,  told  him  how  an  army  of  com- 
munication had  been  crumpled  up,  de- 
stroyed, and  all  but  annihilated  by  the 
craft,  strategy,  wisdom  and  foresight  of 
the  brigadier. 

But  some  say,  and  among  these  be 
the  Gurkhas  who  watched  on  the  hill- 
98 


The  Drums  of  the  Fore  and  Aft» 

side,  that  that  battle  was  won  by  Jakin 
and  Lew,  whose  little  bodies  were  borne 
up  just  in  time  to  fit  two  gaps  at  the 
head  of  the  big  ditch-grave  for  the  dead 
under  the  heights  of  Jagai. 


THE    END. 


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16.  Around  the  World  m  Eighty  Days.    By  Jules  Verne. 

17.  In  Darkest  England.     By  Gen.  Booth. 

18.  Ships  That  Pass  in  the  Night.    By  Beatrice  Harra- 

den. 

19.  Nance,  a  Kentucky  Belle.     By  Miss  Greene. 

20.  Mark  Twain,   His  Life  and    Work.     By    Will    M. 

Clemens. 

21.  Tom  Brown's  School  Days.    By  Thomas  Hughes. 

22.  A  Holiday  in  Bed.     By  J.  M.  Barrie. 

23.  By  Right,  Not  Law.     By  R.  H.  Sherard. 

24.  The  Child  of  the  Ball.     By  De  Alarcon. 

25.  Health  and  Beauty.     By  Emily  S.  Bouton. 

26.  Lydia.     By  Sidney  Christian. 

27.  Rose  and  Ninette.     By  Alphonse  Daudet. 

28.  A  Tale  of  Two  Cities.    By  Charles  Dickens. 


For  sale  everywhere,  or  sent  post-paid  on  receipt  of  price. 

F.  TENNYSON   NEELY,    Publisher, 
96  Queen  St.,  London.     114  Fifth  Ave.,  IV.  Y. 


A    000  111  155    8 


